The garden is here! The area that was once all overgrowth and weeds has been cleared to reveal a sunlit space that is now serving as a space for two raised bed gardens. Jennifer Nawada and Roger Cook put together the plan for these rectangular raised beds, which will accomodate a fairly generous family garden come next summer. This, coupled with a potted herb garden on the deck, will give us the opportunity to grow a solid crop of veggies for next summer. I've already got my gardening book for planning.

I was talking to a friend recently about different ways to re-use old windows as design elements. She and her family have found some pretty creative ways to integrate windows, including using them as message boards and picture frames. Since Joe and I are going to have about six or seven old windows that, for various reasons, we won't to be able to reuse, we're trying to figure out what to do with them. Well, at our last design meeting we found at least one solution. Our designers, Dee and Andrew of Terrat Elms, suggested we keep an old window that we originally planned on removing (shown here) so we'll be able to look into the mudroom from the kitchen, and through it, all the way out to the front yard. Since the current window is in pretty bad shape, Joe measured out some of the other windows we have onsite so we can use one of them to fit the original window space. Sure, we'll lose some upper shelf space, but I think it will be worth it to let more light in, and to to open up a space that is very cramped. Can't wait to see the finished product!

Any other ideas from readers on re-using old windows? Thanks!

So, maybe I should have done this when I first started blogging, but I thought it would make sense to step back a bit and talk through our design process—and how we got to doing this addition in the first place.

After living in a small apartment for many years, we bought our house four years ago after falling in love with it the second we walked through the door. We were ecstatic to be first-time homeowners of a house with such a storied history, and with such potential.

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Joe and I have become very accustomed to an old house with low ceilings. The heights differ from room to room, but some of the rooms are just shy of eight feet. That means our tall friends have to be very careful when walking around. We have worked to expose beams and gain height wherever possible, and we are currently making some decisions about how we can gain some height in the work area of the new kitchen. Until recently, the plaster ceiling in that room was pretty decrepit. But when we ripped it down, we discovered some nice beams (excepting the one that a plumber cut into to accomodate a pipe...but that's a story for another day!). However, there is a lot of plumbing and wiring that needs to happen in this space, so we are working with Tom right now to figure out how we can keep the beams somewhat exposed, while hiding the ugly plumbing that needs to stay there. 

A few ideas: shiplap that will cover the beams, but allow for a more streamlined look, or insulating between the beams and then plastering over the insulation, allowing for more beam to show (our preference, but far more complicated to pull off). The jury is still out, and Tom is working on ideas to make this more usable space (while trying to get get at least a few more inches of height out of it).  Above is a picture of the current ceiling and kitchen.

Well, the family room is now fully framed, roof and everything, and it looks great! I've been learning so much observing this process, and am amazed by how fast the digging, prep, foundation laying and framing seems to go. 

Remember that chimney the TOH crew was repairing off of our study? You know, the leaky one with the rotten sill? Well it is a broken chimney no more—thanks to some amazing repair work by Tom Silva and his team, who sealed it up—at least from the outside. (I'm including a photo of what it used to look like, makeshift grill and all). More exploration will need to happen on the inside to see if the damage is reparable and if we'll be able to have a working fireplace in the study, but for now, it's just nice to know we won't have water dripping into the room during every rainstorm!

The producers at TOH recently introduced us to a guy named Bob Phillips, who, as a hobby, identifies artifacts from the premises of old homes and other locations. He spent a fair amount of time finding treasures in our backyard, and identified some pretty amazing pieces. His historical knowledge is amazing (I can't believe this isn't his career, and is only something he does in his free time!), and he filmed a segment for the show recently. Above is a shot of Bob (center) with my husband, Joe, (right) and a well-known television personality you may recognize (left). I'm also including a photo of one of the coolest objects Bob found—an old spigot. He said it could easily be cleaned up, and even used again, since it's in such perfect condition. Just another testament to how they used to make things to last. He also found a shoe buckle (from a time before they even had shoelaces), buttons, a small bell,and many other things.